Yesterday was world intellectual property day. Coincidentally, a start up incubation program I’m currently a part of also organized an intellectual property workshop for us to give us a good understanding of intellectual property as it relates to our businesses.
I learnt a lot! Lemme just start by saying that if intellectual property rights were understood and enforced as strictly as it should, you and I more than likely would’ve been locked up by now for violating someone’s intellectual property.
I’m just going to share some highlights from yesterday’s session, cos it’s too much to cover everything.
If you want to be rich in business, be greedy and secretive with your ideas
One of the mistakes we make is thinking that nobody wants to steal our ideas. Or that our ideas are not good enough for someone to want to steal them. Because of this, we tell our business ideas to anybody and everybody. Why different people do this is for varying reasons.
For some people, the excitement about having a great idea has them humming the idea in everyone’s ear for validation of how great the idea is. For others, it’s to receive feedback on the idea.
Whatever your reasons are, you’re doing yourself a great disservice sharing that awesome idea, because ideas are abstract and unless documented, can not be protected by laws like copyright and related laws.
Most people have an “oh it’s my friend” mentality even when it comes to business. But you forget that that idea you’re telling them about is what will probably put food on your table and feed your family too. But because your mouth is sugary, you reveal it all, only to see your friend doing the same or a similar thing tomorrow.
We often think some ideas are too small to protect
As I mentioned earlier, some people just don’t think their ideas are game changers, and so because of that, they don’t see the essence of guarding it with their lives.
The one corner case
I’m not sure how many people have heard the “one corner” song by Ghanaian musician Patapaa. It was one of the songs of the last decade, and gained a lot of popularity in Ghana and even overseas.
In our discussion yesterday, we discovered that there in fact was a an intellectual property issue following the release of the song. ALLEGEDLY, the song was originally recorded by some guy in Tamale who no ones knows. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any proof of his allegations that he was the original owner because he never registered the song or made any attempts to protect it at his intellectual property. He just jumped into a studio, recorded a song, and shared it with a few friends.
After the song became a hit, unknown guy came out with his allegations. As you probably guessed, he couldn’t even make a case because he had no proof his song was released earlier.
Of course, even if it was, his song and patapaa’s are not exact copies (the lyrics and beats are different, but “one corner” is the name and central theme of both songs), so he still might’ve lost the case.
The case of Poha
If you’re not from West Africa, there’s a huge chance you won’t know what Poha is. Even among West Africans, it’s called many different things. Poha is what it’s called in my language. I think it’s called Saamiya in Ashanti.
It’s one of the local drinks you’ll find through out Ghana (and maybe some west African countries) and it’s made from tamarind.
Now, think about what would’ve happened if the family that discovered how to make Poha kept the recipe a secret, passing it down from generation to generation. If they had protected it as a trade secret, they would be the only producer of poha in the entire world. Think of Coca Cola big! That’s how big they would’ve been in West Africa because Poha is one of the most affordable beverage option for the majority of middle to lower class earners . At least it is here in Ghana.
Intellectual property is an area that we need to learn about, because I believe it is a lack of understanding of fundamentals like this that the average African entrepreneur is not able to profit off their creativity.
There were some serious controversial questions coming up when Q&A opened, because you know we would’ve wanted to understand what the law thinks of AI and it’s creation. But that will probably be a topic for another post.
All images here are mine